A federal worker was fired over the filming of DOGE. She is now running for Congress

Alexis Goldstein had She had dropped her toddler off at daycare and was on her way back to the office when she ran into a group of people she had never seen before trying to access equipment that appeared to be from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). What followed was a year-long battle to save her job at the agency from Elon Musk’s call Government Efficiency Department.

It was February 2025and DOGE was launching an all-out attack on the United States government. Agents arrived at the CFPB on February 6. Goldstein took out her phone and began documenting the intruders; Turns out they are DOGE members, incl Jordan Wick And Jeremy Lewin. CFPB leadership alleged that Goldstein violated the agency’s information security rules because the images she took included computer screens. After a year on administrative leave in limbo, she was fired from her past job February.

like USAID (USAID) DOGE targeted the CFPB early on, trying to fire more than 1,400 of its 1,700 workers in April 2025. Musk first acknowledged his intention to destroy the small consumer protection agency in November 2024. Write on X “Delete CFPB.”

Days after her ouster, Goldstein announced she would run in a crowded race for the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District against incumbent April McLain Delaney. WIRED spoke to Goldstein about her experiences in government and with DOGE, and how her experience as a federal employee inspired her to run for government office.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

WIRED: Can you walk me through the situation that led to your firing?

Alexis Goldstein: DOGE came to the CFPB, and I was on site that day because the union had been sitting in the lobby all week, trying to show people that we were still there for them. We got word that DOGE might be coming that day. I dropped my baby off at daycare and was pushing my stroller through the basement when I saw some people I’d never seen before who didn’t have CFPB badges but had a CFPB computer. I put my phone in the cup holder and started filming through the window, trying to be invisible, but they saw me and moved to a room that didn’t have a window.

So I went in and introduced myself and asked who they were, because we have all this training that says we’re all responsible for protecting the sensitive data that we have, whether it’s from consumers or companies that we regulate. I started filming and asked them for their names and if they had received the proper training to handle our sensitive information. Someone left the room immediately. And another guy, Jeremy Lewin, the guy who broke up USAID and who looks like he’s about 18 even though he’s about 30, ran into the corner, and they called security on me. (Lewin and the CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.)

You were placed on administrative leave for a year before being fired. What was it like, and when did you find out you were fired?

This question is a bit difficult to answer, because they fired a third of the CFPB the following week. I got fired with everyone else, then we didn’t get fired, then we got fired again, then we didn’t get fired. It wasn’t until about May that I was in limbo during my supervisor’s vacation specifically.

In some ways, I wasn’t worried about my own situation. I was worried about everyone. There was only a court order keeping the CFPB open. At some point, it went to the capital circuit, and we were waiting for their decision. And every day that passed, people said, “We’ve made it through another day!”